Copy a channel from one image to another using safe code

Question

I'm trying to refactor this unsafe code to copy a single ARGB channel from one image to another using System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Copy as per this example on MSDN but I'm totally lost.

Could anyone walk me through how I would go about it?

public enum ChannelARGB
{
    Blue = 0,
    Green = 1,
    Red = 2,
    Alpha = 3
}

public static void transferOneARGBChannelFromOneBitmapToAnother(
    Bitmap source,
    Bitmap dest,
    ChannelARGB sourceChannel,
    ChannelARGB destChannel )
{
    if ( source.Size!=dest.Size )
        throw new ArgumentException();
    Rectangle r = new Rectangle( Point.Empty, source.Size );
    BitmapData bdSrc = source.LockBits( r, 
                                        ImageLockMode.ReadOnly, 
                                        PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb );
    BitmapData bdDst = dest.LockBits( r, 
                                      ImageLockMode.ReadWrite,
                                      PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb );
    unsafe
    {
        byte* bpSrc = (byte*)bdSrc.Scan0.ToPointer();
        byte* bpDst = (byte*)bdDst.Scan0.ToPointer();
        bpSrc += (int)sourceChannel;
        bpDst += (int)destChannel;
        for ( int i = r.Height * r.Width; i > 0; i-- )
        {
            *bpDst = *bpSrc;
            bpSrc += 4;
            bpDst += 4;
        }
    }
    source.UnlockBits( bdSrc );
    dest.UnlockBits( bdDst );
}

Edit

In an attempt to work through @Ben Voigt walk though I have come up with this so far. Unfortunately I am now getting the following error:

Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.

    private static void TransferOneArgbChannelFromOneBitmapToAnother(
                                         Bitmap source,
                                         Bitmap destination, 
                                         ChannelARGB sourceChannel, 
                                         ChannelARGB destinationChannel)
    {
        if (source.Size != destination.Size)
        {
            throw new ArgumentException();
        }

        Rectangle rectangle = new Rectangle(Point.Empty, source.Size);

        // Lockbits the source.
        BitmapData bitmapDataSource = source.LockBits(rectangle,
                                                  ImageLockMode.ReadWrite,
                                                  PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);

        // Declare an array to hold the bytes of the bitmap.
        int bytes = bitmapDataSource.Stride * bitmapDataSource.Height;

        // Allocate a buffer for the source image
        byte[] sourceRgbValues = new byte[bytes];

        // Get the address of the first line.
        IntPtr ptrSource = bitmapDataSource.Scan0;

        // Copy the RGB values into the array.
        System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Copy(ptrSource, 
                                                    sourceRgbValues, 
                                                    0, 
                                                    bytes);

        // Unlockbits the source.
        source.UnlockBits(bitmapDataSource);

        // Lockbits the destination.
        BitmapData bitmapDataDestination = destination.LockBits(rectangle,
                                                  ImageLockMode.ReadWrite,
                                                  PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);

        // Allocate a buffer for image
        byte[] destinationRgbValues = new byte[bytes];

        IntPtr ptrDestination = bitmapDataDestination.Scan0;

        // Copy the RGB values into the array.
        System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Copy(ptrDestination,
                                                    destinationRgbValues, 
                                                    0, 
                                                    bytes);

        ptrSource += (int)sourceChannel;
        ptrDestination += (int)destinationChannel;

        for (int i = rectangle.Height * rectangle.Width; i > 0; i--)
        {
            destinationRgbValues[i] = sourceRgbValues[i];
            ptrSource += 4;
            ptrDestination += 4;
        }

        // Copy the RGB values back to the bitmap
        // ******This is where I am getting the exception*******.
        System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Copy(destinationRgbValues, 
                                                    0, 
                                                    ptrDestination, 
                                                    bytes);

        // Unlock bits the destination.
        destination.UnlockBits(bitmapDataDestination);
    }

Can anyone see what I have done wrong? This is all a bit over my head to be honest. I think I should buy some books.

Answer 1

1. LockBits the source.
2. Marshal.Copy the source BitmapData to a byte[] buffer.
3. UnlockBits the source.
4. LockBits the destination.
5. Marshal.Copy the destination BitmapData to a byte[] buffer.
6. Loop through and copy that channel from the source byte[] to the destination byte[] (note, use arithmetic on indexes instead of on pointers)
7. Marshal.Copy the destination byte[] back to the BitmapData.
8. UnlockBits the destination.

I'm not sure what the point is, though. Code that uses Marshal.Copy is just as dangerous as code that uses the unsafe keyword, and should require similar code security permission.

A potentially more efficient way would be to use ImageAttributes.SetColorMatrix to remove the desired channel from the destination image, remove all other channels from the source image, and then blend. See the example for ColorMatrix

Or use DirectX (or OpenGL) and a shader that just transfers the one channel.